Proposed Mission May Bring Frozen Moon Samples to Earth in 2020s

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Europe and Russia are working together to bring samples of frozen
moon dirt to Earth in the next decade.

The unmanned mission, called Lunar Polar Sample Return (LPSR),
aims to bore into
the moon 's surface at either the north or south pole, where
nearly permanent sunlight would allow a robot to operate in
manageable conditions.

"Scientists wanted a sample from the bottom of an unilluminated
crater, but this would be practically impossible with the
technology we have today," said European Space Agency official
Bruno Gardini.

LPSR is a collaboration between ESA and the Russian Federal Space
Agency, which is known as Roscosmos. Both agencies hope the
effort helps them develop new technologies across a range of
missions. [ Photos: Our
Changing Moon ]

LPSR is slated to blast off in 2020 or 2022, Gardini said. It
would use drill technology developed for the European-led
ExoMars
mission, which aims to launch an orbiter to the Red Planet in
2016 and a drill-equipped rover two years later.

Gardini expects some modifications to the ExoMars drill will be
necessary for LPSR. And the moon sample will have to be frozen to
minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 150 degrees Celsius), because
lunar soil contains scientifically important compounds that will
evaporate and be lost under normal temperatures and pressures.

Gardini explained that it had been hoped that LPSR would be
included in the ESA member states' meeting this November, which
will decide the programs and funding for the next three years.
But he said that discussion of the mission will now likely have
to wait until 2015, when the next such meeting is held.

LPSR should be considered as "a precursor for human spaceflight,"
Gardini added.

A precursor mission to LPSR called the Luna-Resource Lander is
also being discussed. This project, which is slated to launch in
2017, would test the visual navigation, hazard detection and
avoidance systems, sample acquisition and in situ analysis
technologies needed for lunar sample return.

Luna-Resource was originally set to be a joint Russian-Indian
mission, with an Indian rocket blasting a Russian landing
platform and an Indian rover known as Chandrayaan-2 into space.
Chandrayaan-2 may still be involved, but the mission will now be
launched by a Russian rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. And the mission will have some ESA instruments
onboard, agency officials said.

The visual navigation and hazard detection and avoidance systems
aboard Luna-Resource will also be used for ESA’s Lunar Lander
mission, which is slated to launch in 2018. Lunar Lander will go
to the moon's south pole.

Gardini said a factor in ESA’s interest in the south pole has
been NASA’s intention to place a future base there. The United
States Congress has already declared that the base will be called
the Neil Armstrong Lunar Outpost.

LPSR would not be the first mission to bring moon samples back to
Earth. Over the course of NASA's Apollo program, astronauts
collected 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar rock and soil for
scientists to study.